Just need to store events, so no need for 24h storage. Also not really interested in recognition software, just motion activation is enough.
What is the best brand that allows our own cloud (no subscriptions)?
Thanks
Motioneye - this was my go to before frigate. Worked perfectly and easy to setup. Playback was slow(5yrs ago) so I switched. Not sure of its state now but it was very well designed
Shinobi - it seems decent but in never could get it running well. This was my setup issue. That said, from the short amount I used it it looked promising
Frigate - what I use now. Works very well, playback is smooth and fast. Lots of options. It mostly for onject detection but pretty sure you can setup to capture motion only.
I’d avoid Reolink unless all your cams are wired. The wireless/battery cams don’t support ONVIF. Unfortunately I purchased a few based off bad information. Synology struggles with them as well. 
others told me reolink are the best for integration in home assistant …? Ok noted not the wireless ones
I love their cams, battery style don’t support the functions necessary.
***i still use 3 on my property because the night vision is solid
I use ZoneMinder running on my local cloud to capture and process my various camers. You can add code to it that will do object detection. It’s a great feature if you decide to make your smart house also act as an alarm system. I have a couple of these FOSCAM camera’s inside the house. I like the Dahua N24CB33 controlled via Onvif as an outside camera. As I’ve had these camera’s for multiple years you’d probably need a newer model. If you want the cameras outside the most important thing you should do is use a separate IR source so you don’t end up with spiders in front of the camera in warm weather. The FOSCOM cameras require you to use their app to set them up, but once set up you can process the stream locally.
I use Amcrest POE cams. Avoid wireless models.
I turn off IR and set to color only, never black and white. The low light performance is good enough where if you are in city with street or house lights it’ll be better than b/w with led. I’m in country with virtually zero light and moonlight is enough in many cases.
Can anyone chime in on why I should avoid wireless models for security cameras?
Wired it always best but wireless is acceptable
The amcrest wireless models tend to require third party so and cloud which is an absolute no.
Wireless can be easily disabled/jammed using EMF noise. Some robbers are now carrying around wifi jammers.
What is a good solution when wired isn’t a feasible option?
I have 3 locations where cameras are going that wired is completely doable, but 2 locations where its simply not feasible. Can I make wireless work, sub-optimally, or am I completely SOL with covering the parts of my property that aren’t near enough to anything except a Wifi signal?
You can wire anything. But is it worth it?
If camera is close enough to connect to WiFi with Excellent signal, not just good, then WiFi is OK. Else you should not use WiFi camera and instead find method to reliably extend your network to space.
I think wired is best case. If you can’t or simply don’t feel like trenching or crawling in some small space it is not a big deal.
WiFi cameras at long distances are spotty. They work well enough but covering multiple WiFi spots that are outside of home can lead to a mess of repeaters or APs.
I will use my home as example
I have an entry gate 200’ from house. I need cameras at the gate. I tried adding AP outside of home but that distance was too much. Trenching wire would be a pain. I made wifi bridge using Unifi AP Nano. WiFi bridge is almost equal to wire due to signal strength, data throughput and reliability. I now have multiple cameras and RasPi in that area with >1GBPS connection and no dropouts.
I have similar scenerio at back of my home except only 100’ and just need to watch small area with goats. Reliability was not super important. I used 2 WiFi cameras in the area but uptime was about 60-70% due to poor signal. I replaced this with AP meshed to AP in home, POE switch and wired camera. This is significantly more stable and uptime is now over 95% and maybe 99. I may use bridge here in future but currently all works well so why bother.
WiFi is not the problem. Signal strength is and really if signal is good is probably close enough to wire. Remember that signal strength determines throughput so if signal is poor, image quality and reliability drop out.
Before I used Bridge and mesh AP to extend network i tried adding and moving APs in my brick/stucco/concrete home. This left me with bad WiFi inside and outside my home. Ultimately I set APs in home to work well for in the home and determined extending network to central locations outside and adding network switches at that location allowed was better option. This is now my recommendation for remote areas. Generally people limit their options to accommodate a problem. By adding the centralized switch it greatly expanded the number and types of devices I could add.
Thank you for the explanation. Many places I found via Google said wifi = no, but never really a reason why. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.